LOCKLEYS EARLY LEARNING CENTRE                                        

 

 

 

 

Error in our calendar

We have just realised that we made a mistake in our event calendar for this year. Father’s Day Afternoon Tea will be Friday 31st August not Wed 31st October. We apologise if anyone had already put that date in their diary.

 

Our Fabulous Team

Dionne             Kym             Hema           Paula

 

 

Heather             Bek           Paige           Krystin

Lil               Sandra           Nicole          Kahla

Lisa            Chanelle            Tati             Belinda

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea                  Nisha                  Renae

Stella                  Asmita                Vanita

 

Our Commitment to Learning

Bek and I have now completed our Marte Meo training and we are now Marte Meo Colleague Trainers. Now both Bek and I are able to support our team to further develop their practices in supporting children’s play skills.

We have been lucky enough to gain an insight into many of our families favourite songs. During music and movement we have been playing a variety of these songs, including ‘The Wiggles, Play School, The Beatles, ABBA and Twinkle, Twinkle’. The children have been pulling out their one of a kind dance moves. They have been singing and chanting different rhymes, jingles and songs along to their favourite songs. We have then furthered this by introducing musical instruments which has allowed the children to experiment with different ways of expressing their ideas.

 

Regards, Dionne

 

This month we have been focusing on incorporating our family’s adventures into the room’s curriculum. After finding out lots of information from families about the different types of hobbies and adventures they go on we have been setting up different dramatic play areas in the environment that children can relate back to. Children enjoy exploring their identity and experimenting with different personas in dramatic play areas. Some of the areas we have set up include camping, the beach, the swimming pool and the playground.

During morning open door play we have invited the older siblings into our room to spend some time together. They have really enjoyed reading stories together in the tent as a group.

 

Families have kindly brought in photographs for us to see the wonderful adventures they get up to on the weekends. We have created a beautiful photo wall of all the fantastic adventures our families and our room take. We will continue to add new photos from our families and plan for different dramatic play areas in our room.

 

What a fantastic afternoon we had at ‘Grandparent & Special Friend Day’ the children had lots of fun spending it with their loved ones. There were  so many smiles and laughs shared during the afternoon tea. We cherish being able to share our environment and our daily routines with our loved ones!

 

ask for a turn and remind each other to please walk inside. We encourage and support this dialogue between the children at all times, providing learning opportunities during the day to openly learn to express their thoughts and feelings with each other and problem solve between each other. We believe that all children are competent and capable learners from birth and that each child’s right and dignity should be respected at all times.

 

Kind thoughts from us all.

Tati, Lisa, Chanelle, Krystin and Heather.

 

We have continued to investigate ‘what’s in the River

Torrens (Karra Wirra Parri)?’ And over the past month, we have made some very exciting discoveries. Over one of our walks, we discovered some ducks in the river which caused a lot of discussions. One topic that caused robust debate was ‘what do ducks eat?’ Through some extensive research we discovered that bread is actually bad for ducks. This was very surprising news that challenged all the adults and children’s current knowledge. We were intrigued to learn some foods that are good for ducks are peas, corn, dog food, lettuce and tomatoes and to our delight, when we feed the ducks some peas and corn, we found how much the ducks LOVED it! The children have  also researched answers to puzzling questions ie: ‘Do ducks eat cheese?’ This really divided the pre-kindy room and required careful research (the children did eventually discover that ducks in fact don’t eat cheese). You may have also noticed the natural materials set up on our stage. These are the materials that the children found the most fascinating and wanted to bring back to pre-kindy to explore further.

Each morning for our Morning Meetings the pre-kindy children and educators all discuss our shared guidelines and expectations. These include visuals that show respectful behaviours. Each morning we learn different signs and actions to ask for space, how to respectfully

 

As it is now winter and the children are dressed in jackets and are becoming very competent and independent with their self-help skills, sometimes items of clothing go missing. Some children own the same style of clothing which can make it challenging to distinguish which item of clothing belongs to whom. To reduce the loss and misplacement of your child’s belongings, please ensure that you label your child’s clothing. We understand and respect that your child’s belongings are important, and this, we hope will reduce the amount of misplaced belongings.

Bek, Kym, Paige, Stella, Kahla & Andrea. 

 

In the month of June, we continued to engage in our environment and inquiry projects. We welcomed a Bubble-ologist named Marty McBubble to perform an amazing scientific bubble show. The children engaged their natural sense of wonder while interacting with Marty’s bubbly experiments. The children learned more about scientific principles behind soap bubbles. Concepts such as flexibility, transparency, surface tension, and the properties of solids, liquids and gases. The children even had the chance to experience what it felt like in a bubble.

 

The bee art interpretations then lead on to the children painting their interpretation of ‘winter’. The children chose cool colour shades and their paintings featured elements such as wind, rain, snow, clouds, lightning and the sun.

As our Bee Inquiry continued to develop, so did our awareness of the living things around us. The children used their time outside hunting for living things. They searched under logs and rocks, in the garden, on trees and along the fence line.

After learning that bees pollenate flowers whilst collecting nectar to make honey. We decided that it would be a great idea to plant flowers in our environment for the bees. We have all been so excited to see them flower and attract some hungry bees.

The children also continued exploring art through their representation of bees using a variety of artistic mediums. They used paint and cardboard to paint their interpretation of what a bee looks li

 

This month we purchased some beautiful Aboriginal floor puzzles. Developing their ability to work together as a team, the children set about completing them.

 

This month we welcomed the children’s Grandparents and Special People for an afternoon tea in the Centre. The children introduced their Grandparents and Special People to the group and showed their Special Friends the art and activities around the room. A great time was had by all.

As winter has well and truly set in, we request that you remember to send a jacket or jumper with your child’s name on it and to ensure that you take them home at the end of the day. We would also like to remind you to pack a few sets of spare clothes and shoes in your child’s bag.

 

Please don’t hesitate to see Sandra or Hema if you have any queries about our preschool Program.

 

Thank you,

Hema, Sandra, Nicole, Asmita, Lil & Nisha.

had a few hiccups and we hope you will be patient while we work through this time.

Thank you. Ciao, Paula

 

  

The Centre has been looking into how to combat waste. We had a visit from the local council and KESAB to help us look more closely at our recycling habits. They have encouraged us to get some coloured bins so the children can easily recognise rubbish, recycle and organics.

They have also encouraged us to put our used paper towels into the organics bin to really make a difference. We have been recycling all our soft plastics back to Coles. I have been getting some of the Preschool children to help me take out my recycling to the bins. We talk about the colour of the bins and  what needs to go into them and why. Hopefully the children will learn what needs to be recycled and why and what it means to our planet!

Thank you, Belinda

 

Welcome to the new financial year and the new Child Care Subsidy!! The transition to the new package has